{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]],"date-time":"2026-08-07T15:23:38Z","timestamp":1786116218842,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,2,17]],"date-time":"2020-02-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1581897600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003593","name":"Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient\u00edfico e Tecnol\u00f3gico","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["440371\/2016-3"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["440371\/2016-3"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003593","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Comiss\u00e3o de Aperfei\u00e7oamento de Pessoal do N\u00edvel Superior","award":["88881.130808\/2016.1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["88881.130808\/2016.1"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Microorganisms"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emergent arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) responsible for congenital Zika syndrome (CZS) and a range of other congenital malformations. Evidence shows that ZIKV infects human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) in the fetal brain, prompting inflammation and tissue damage\/loss. Despite recent advances, little is known about the pathways involved in CZS pathogenesis. We performed a meta-analysis, gene ontology (GO), and pathway analysis of whole transcriptome studies with the aim of clarifying the genes and pathways potentially altered during hNPCs infection with ZIKV. We selected three studies (17 samples of infected hPNCs compared to hPNCs uninfected controls) through a systematic search of the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The raw reads were trimmed, counted, and normalized. Next, we performed a rank product meta-analysis to detect consistently differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in these independent experiments. We detected 13 statistically significant DEGs. GO ontology and reactome analysis showed an enrichment of interferon, pro-inflammatory, and chemokines signaling and apoptosis pathways in ZIKV-infected cells. Moreover, we detected three possible new candidate genes involved in hNPCs infection: APOL6, XAF1, and TNFRSF1. Our results confirm that interferon (IFN) signaling dominates the ZIKV response, and that a crucial contribution is given by apoptotic pathways, which might elicit the CZS phenotype.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/microorganisms8020270","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,2,18]],"date-time":"2020-02-18T10:10:25Z","timestamp":1582020625000},"page":"270","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["In Vitro Zika Virus Infection of Human Neural Progenitor Cells: Meta-Analysis of RNA-Seq Assays"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Rossella","family":"Gratton","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Advanced Translational Microbiology, Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Via dell\u2019Istria 65\/1, 34137 Trieste, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Strada di Fiume 447, 34129 Trieste, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paola","family":"Tricarico","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Advanced Translational Microbiology, Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Via dell\u2019Istria 65\/1, 34137 Trieste, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9908-742X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Almerinda","family":"Agrelli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology Keizo Asami (LIKA), Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235 Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"},{"name":"Department of Pathology-Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235-Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7169-4140","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Heverton","family":"Cola\u00e7o da Silva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology Keizo Asami (LIKA), Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235 Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"},{"name":"Department of Pathology-Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235-Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4523-4276","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lucas","family":"Co\u00ealho Bernardo-Menezes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology Keizo Asami (LIKA), Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235 Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"},{"name":"Department of Pathology-Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235-Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8493-1168","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sergio","family":"Crovella","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Advanced Translational Microbiology, Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Via dell\u2019Istria 65\/1, 34137 Trieste, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Genetics-Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235-Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Antonio","family":"Campos Coelho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular Biology-Federal University of Para\u00edba (UFPB), Campus I-Lot.-Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 58051-900 Jo\u00e3o Pessoa, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ronald","family":"Rodrigues de Moura","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology-Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235-Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"},{"name":"Department of Genetics-Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235-Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lucas","family":"Cavalcanti Brand\u00e3o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology Keizo Asami (LIKA), Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235 Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"},{"name":"Department of Pathology-Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235-Cidade Universit\u00e1ria, 50670-901 Recife, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,2,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Azar, S.R., and Weaver, S.C. (2019). Vector Competence: What Has Zika Virus Taught Us?. 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